Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Most Overlooked Nintendo 3DS Games - Part Five

It's been over a year since my last entry of the Most Overlooked Nintendo 3DS Games (which scares me to death at how fast time seems to go). However, this popular segment's back with five new games, and for the first time, a digital game appears, the first of no doubt many! All of the games featured on this edition are sequels or spin-offs of a preexisting property, which shows that even established series can have their black sheep sales-wise. After perusing this edition of the Most Overlooked Nintendo 3DS Games, please post what games you think deserve more time in the proverbial sun.

If you missed a past part of my Most Overlooked Nintendo 3DS Games, no worries. Just click on one of the following links!

While the original Theatrhythm Final Fantasy did well enough in sales in the West to have a sequel localized, Curtain Call, the sequel in question, did not live up to its predecessor's amount of copies sold. This is highly disheartening and disappointing, as Curtain Call is a much more content-packed and upgraded game compared to the original, which wasn't relaxed on content to begin with. Containing over 200 songs, continued DLC support, a myriad of Final Fantasy all-stars to add to a player's party, multiple modes including online battles and an engaging Quest Mode, and altered mechanics to make for a superior experience, it's unfortunate that Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call did not perform as well as it should have. Well, at least in the West! Japan happily had a much different result.

Batman: Arkham Origins - Blackgate

From Armature Studios, a collection of mostly former Retro Studios employees (the folks who made Metroid Prime, only one of my top ten games of all time), Batman: Arkham Origins - Blackgate released on both dedicated handheld systems of this generation, the Nintendo 3DS and the PlayStation Vita. We'll obviously be looking at the former version, but both SKUs failed to light the sales charts on fire, despite being smartly executed games. In Blackgate, Armature successfully created a 2-1/2D Metroid-style world to explore and implemented the combat system of the console Arkham games. Sadly, as stated, both the 3DS and the Vita versions of Blackgate did not do well sales-wise, making WB Games launch digital versions of the game on numerous HD storefronts. It didn't do too well there either, which stinks as Blackgate is a worthy addition to the Batman: Arkham saga.

Fluidity: Spin Cycle

In the past I have dedicated these Most Overlooked segments to retail games exclusively. However, I would be an old fossil if I continued to do so, as digital is widely considered the future of gaming. That, and a game being digital does not discredit it whatsoever. Anyhow, Fluidity: Spin Cycle is the first of many digital-only games that will be featured on my Most Overlooked lists in the future. It had players guiding a collection of water through a series of levels, tilting and rotating the Nintendo 3DS system to influence the direction of the hydro-heavy player character. To be honest, Spin Cycle would have been better served for another platform of Nintendo's, as rotating the Nintendo 3DS in one's hands was rather uncomfortable. In addition to that, the 3D effect was automatically shut off for the entirety of the game because of this. Perhaps those are reasons why many didn't make the jump to Fluidity: Spin Cycle, despite it being a clever, creative, and engaging game.

Samurai Warriors: Chronicles

A launch title in many territories, Samurai Warriors: Chronicles was released in a period where the fatigue of Musou-styled games was very much real. This was despite the new additions implemented to this Nintendo 3DS version of the game, such as the top screen displaying the in-game action while the bottom screen cleverly showed the level map, HUD information, and mission updates. A big addition was on-the-fly switching between multiple characters in any given battle. The Nintendo 3DS launch was indeed weak, at least here in North America, but Samurai Warriors: Chronicles offered an immense amount of content that most Nintendo 3DS owners sadly passed on for various reasons.

Shinobi

In the Nintendo 3DS edition of Shinobi, players controlled the highly capable Jiro Musashi as he hacked, slashed, jumped, climbed, and chucked throwing stars through a myriad of challenging levels. No doubt the steep challenge that Shinobi possessed turned off a lot of potential players, and to be fair, Shinobi was indeed a difficult game to beat much more get 100% in. However, for those players who took the challenge (and there weren't that many, or obviously this game wouldn't be on a Most Overlooked list), Shinobi delivered high thrills, action-packed gameplay, and twitch-based combat. Just don't think that the story will make a lick of coherent sense, and you'll be okay!